Leo Varadkar resigns as Taoiseach

I'm interested in results, not grandstanding and spin.

RTE affair... Immigration mess... Crime levels and Garda discontent and retirements... Just to name 3.

Those "results" speak for themselves.

Haughey although a crook is leagues above the wet blanket that is Simon Harris. In terms of intelligence and political aptitude it's like a premiership player and a Non League player.

Not really, the housing crisis has been getting worse since 2016. While I agree it can't be fixed over night, 8 years is long enough to come up with a coherent plan to address it.

What have we got?

Well, he clearly has political aptitude - you don't get to rise to the top of the political ladder without it!

Luanda is a notoriously expensive town so maybe we do have something in common. If you close your eyes and don't think about it too much.

Thats not what we are saying at all.

All officials should be honest above all but thats often not the case in politics.

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.” Frank Herbert

Im not really a fan of Haughey but he was an able and shrewd operator, and alot of his policies were well ahead of their time and shaped the country as we know it.

If its a choice between him and school boy Harris, its like comparing Einstein to a caveman.

What will happen to Simon Coveney?

Will there be a cabinet reshuffle so to speak?

These are all young politicians. What will they do?

The current leaders have created none of these, they inherited this from the EEC. They currently try to impinge on the export markets and create disincentives to control the wealth that people make, to create taxes for personal vanity projects.

Sorry but are you trying to tell me that current politicians have ANY leadership abilities (especially in Ireland) to create wealth? Please explain that one.

i create wealth. For countries, for staff and also for communities. Name one politician that actually creates wealth in Ireland.

Simonese twins.

Yes of course they should focus on fixing the planning system but it's not as if this issue arose yesterday. Planning has long been a problem but they sat on their hands for years.

It's also not good enough to say that it's because of opposition to policy. Government have forced through unpopular policy here on many occasions, and are in the midst of forcing through a deeply unpopular hate speech law. They didn't reform planning because they didn't want to. It's that simple.

And of course the government should be in the business of building and developing infrastructure - that absolutely includes houses . The government is the biggest builder in the state by far and has ample skill to throw at it. The issue though government has an industrial policy of creating job growth in MNCs where the native population do not have the skills and has therefore required huge inward migration to keep the show on the road. It does not have a housing policy to match this - this is a choice. The net effect of importing high skilled high paid labour is to price locals out of the market.

The main reason for the children's hospital overrunning it's budget was because it was tendered with an unfinished design. What party was in government and pushed the button when it wasn't ready?

You may be right, especially if MM is still leading after the General Election. I think another leader of FF may be more open than MM to a SF coalition. I also think high chance MM will stand down before the next General Election.

The problem is that the established parties are currently universally unpopular and I believe will return substantially fewer TDs than expected. The gains will go to the independents largely.

Such a fragmented Dail is quite likely to be be unable to elect a Taoiseach. So we may need new elections.

That's my hunch but I guess we will see if the discontent shown at the referendums starts to show through at elections soon enough.

I wouldn't put any great store in polls at the moment. They have been demonstrated to be way out just recently so their value and accuracy has to be called into question. It looks like the electorate is looking for blood.

What does anyone think Leo might do when he leaves politics…..go back to his medical training….?

A hung Dáil is a definite possibility.

One thing I do notice is that Independent Ireland seem to be adding to their numbers daily, both in terms of existing county councillors, as well as currently unelected candidates willing to run in the local elections. Given the unpopularity of the established political parties, I'd imagine a potted plant could give many FF/FG/SF/Lab/SD/etc county councillors a run for their money in the upcoming election, if run as an independent or on a new party banner such as Independent Ireland or the Farmers Alliance (though I haven't seen that much activity from the latter lately).

Any newly elected Independent Ireland county councillors might then be well placed to make a run for the Dáil in the not too distant future, assuming they'd be interested, and I'd imagine many would. I can see a scenario where Independent Ireland could do very well in terms of seats (at the expense of FF, FG and SF), and be a viable coalition partner, possibly with additional Independent technical group or groups, for one of the main parties, to at least have a functioning minority government.

Excellent post.